This blog tracks and displays my R2-D2 building progress! Made almost entirely of aluminum, the goal is to build an autonomous, PC powered robot that will "act" like the R2-D2 we all know from the movies!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Skin side pieces done, siliconed in the rear pocket vent & more

Today I continued my work on the side pieces for the skins, the area where the skins do not cover under the side vents.Last night I used contact cement and glued two layers and aluminum roof flashing together and let it dry over night.When I got home from work, I primed the pieces and put a few coats of satin white on them. Since the weather cooled rather quickly, I set my electric oven to the lowest temperature it would go. After 10 minutes, I shut the oven off and let the pieces bake for another 30 minutes to cool. Here's my "Iron Chef" R2 pieces....

I tipped R2 over onto a quilt and began to bolt the piece into place. Two 4-40 screws do the job nicely!

Here's how it looks with R2 sitting up.

I then decided to silicone in the pocket vents on both the front and rear skins. While I had the front skins off, I decided to silicone the coin return so it is held securely like the other pieces.

Tomorrow I am in hopes of getting the rear octagon port mounted and fix the coin slot openings on the skins. Til then...night!